


Metal Underneth Skin

by worst_case_scenario



Category: Blade Runner (Movies), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick, Original Work, WALL-E (2008)
Genre: Androids, Based on Wall - E, Cyborgs, Humans Are Terrible, Humans are self Destructive, Morality is questioned, Nature, Robot Main Character, Robots, Sci Fi Universe, Space Stations, post apocolyptic, questioning who you are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24325390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worst_case_scenario/pseuds/worst_case_scenario
Summary: In a far future, humanity lives in a station that travels to different planets to use their resources. Humanity has perfected the android to be the perfect worker, and they do what ever they want because they can. and the droids never question it. but morality is more than Ones and Zeros. Will these androids and humans make the right choice before it's too late? or will this parasite that is the human race continue its hold on the world?
Relationships: Humans and robots - Relationship
Kudos: 2





	Metal Underneth Skin

Footsteps echoed through the metal hallway as the technician followed the winding corridors of the complex deeper into the heart of the planet. The technician was absorbed in the feedback from their data pad, brow furrowed as they scrolled through energy consumption charts and coaxium input readings. She passed by various workers in the tunnels but they did not acknowledge her, as they were programmed for work and not much else. 

Natalia Travers was so caught up in the reports on her data pad that she did not realize that she had reached the three enormous generators at the center of the energy plant. Enormous things, churning with power, being fed by the coaxium and other natural minerals from the core of Uta-po. She began to work on the generators, running diagnostic tests and manually checking the valves and pistons to ensure that they were running smoothly. Most humans would not bother with these sort of menial maintenance checks, they would probably just send a bot or a droid down to take readings while relaxing in their office, but she was being thorough. There had been nine maintenance checks on the generators, done by bots of course and filed to her by other technicians, and each of these checks had come back perfect. But that didn’t account for the almost 3% decrease in overall power that the station was experiencing.

But she ran her checks and came back with nothing, the generators were fine. Which didn’t make any sense. She was in the middle of logging these findings in her calculations, when her data pad beeped, reminding her that she had a meeting to get to. She turned and hurried up through the corridors, past the automaton workers who paid her no mind, and to the surface offices. 

Finally stopping at a pristine door that read, Harvel Bryce: Mechanics Manager, she paused to gather her notes on her data pad then knocked twice, and entered the cluttered office. 

Harvel Bryce was bent low over his desk, working of some sort miniaturized generators, he looked up when she entered and smiled, coming around the desk to shake her hand,

“Travers, nice to see you again”

She nodded politely, “Of course Dr. Bryce. The pleasure is all mine. But I am afraid that the matter I called you about is quite urgent, please take a seat.” 

He nodded and sat behind his desk, used dealing with this straightforward approach after years of working with bots and almost antisocial human technicians.

Natalia pulled up a screen on her data pad, and began reading her findings, “With our current power and resource consumption coupled with the yield we are finding in the mineral mines, the colony will be out of power completely in around 4 years. I have run several geological sweeps of the moon and the coaxium in Uta-po is almost completely used up and within a week we will be mostly functioning off of supplemental minerals. And when these run out the colony will be completely powerless, so to speak. Here is the current data on the colony’s energy consumption,”  
She handed him her datapad and waited as he scrolled through all her findings. When he finally looked up she expected him to be surprised or at least worried, but he was completely calm, a small smile playing across his face. 

“Thank you for sharing you findings Travers, but the situation in completely under control.”

Natalia was taken back by this, “What? You mean you already knew about the power deficiency?”

Dr. Bryce gave her a pained smile “Absolutely, the top brass knew about the mineral count when we landed on Uta-po.” He stood up and handed her back the data pad, and guided her to the door, “We have already found a supplementary moon to occupy and will be working on moving the colony shortly,”  
“But - ” she protested as he lead her out of the door,  
“How ‘bout you take the rest of the day off! For your hard work! Thank you!” He remarked brightly and slammed the door in her face. 

Natalia stood there in shock for several minutes before turning and walking off down the hall, deep in thought. When she reached her cluttered closet-sized office, she slumped in her chair, staring blankly at the months of work in front of her that had been waived off by her boss,  
How could they already know and not tell us? We’re technicians not bots! The only reason why they have humans doing these jobs is because they need our thinking skills, otherwise they would just build a fleet of automatons.

She was so deep in thought that she did not even hear the commotion coming from the corridor until a teenager, clutching a large duffel bag dashed into her office and slammed the door. They pressed their back against the metal door and watched silently out the tiny window as the Security Bots ran past the door. Only when the corridor outside was silent did they finally take a breath and turn around to see Natalia staring at them, shocked.

“Uh, hi.” the teenager tried for a friendly wave, “Don’t mind me, I’m just passing through” then whirled around and fumbled with the door handle  
Natalia jumped up at once and pulled them away from the door. The pair grappled for a second then the teenager pushed themselves away, but now their positions were switched with Natalia at the door and the teenager by the desk. They looked around quickly like a cornered animal, clutching the bag to their chest, obviously expecting a fight.  
Natalia paused, then raised her hands in a hopefully non threatening gesture, “Look I do not want to fight, just tell me what you are doing here and maybe we can talk it out.”

The teenager slowly nodded then put down their bag and also raised their hands, then Natalia noticed a robotic hand protruding from their sleeve, 

“You're a droid, aren’t you!” she exclaimed, examining the teenager closely, They were wearing a blue mechanics jumpsuit, they work in the tech corridors, noticed Natalia.

The teenager froze, then nodded slowly, looking around the room, their gaze falling on Natalia’s calculations, and slowly connected the dots, 

“You’ve noticed too!” The teenager flipped open their bag and pulled out a bunch of papers and various pieces of tech, spreading it out over Natalia’s already over cluttered desk.

“Excuse you,” Natalia protested, “What are you doing?”  
The teenager looked up, now energized, “The planet, the resources, you’ve noticed! I didn’t think any humans would.” They handed her a scribbled note containing lots of diagrams and calculations,  
“You’ve noticed the power defincenty, but that's only the tip of the ice berg, it is a trend of a greater ailment. Uta - po is dying, the planet itself is dying, and we are going to abandon it and find another to latch onto.” 

Natalia stood there for a moment, digesting the android’s words, “How do you know about the launch sequence?”  
“Sorry?”  
“The launch, how do you know about it, only the top brass know.”  
The android gave her a humorless smile, “The top brass, and the bots and androids to prep the engines.”  
Natalia paused, then pulled her chair around the desk and sat down, “Ok, why does this matter, we’re moving to a different plant, it’s unfortunate, but if we start in a new planet, maybe we can work it out to be sustainable, I’m sure that the scientists are working on better energy production means.”  
The android cut her off, “But they're not!” and this is far from the first time that we have done this. I’ve counted 12 planets, that’s right 12, that we have drained. It’s not sustainable.”

They stared at Natalia expectantly as if waiting for her to react in some drastic way, but Natalia was never one to jump to conclusions, she gathered data and did her research, and that is exactly what she was going to do here. 

“I will look into your data and research, then get back to you. What is your name? So I can find you?” she remarked, taking out a scrap of paper and jotting down notes,  
The android paused, “Oh, uh call me Oz.”  
Natalia looked at them, “No, what is your name?”  
They looked down embarrassed then mumbled, “OZ - 7567.”  
“Thank you, to get out take the corridor to your right then the emergency stairs, there will be no security on them.” 

OZ - 7567 reluctantly went to the door, then made motions as if they wanted to take their research with them, then thought better and slipped out into the hallway. 

Natalia spent the next few hours flipping through the android’s research, and the more she read, the more concerned she got, not because of the data, she already knew all that, but at the idea that an android could put it all together. In her experience, androids are … simpler. They had only ever been mechanics, doing maintenance and repairs that required more quick thinking and reactions than an average bot, but nothing more. Somehow, this one realized the planetary issue and actually cared about it? And when she talked to them, they seemed … charismatic, human! She almost did not realize, if it wasn't for the appendages, she would’ve thought they were a human. She pulled up a profile on OZ: they were a class 5 android, designed to be a squad leader of a mechanics group, but had not matured fully yet, nothing else of note, they lived on level F-7. 

She turned her attention to the data on the other planets that her colony had inhabited before, every single one of them a verdant green system, thriving with life and energy, but when the colony left, desolate and drained, less than a shell of what it had been before. 

She drummed her hands nervously against her desk, I tried to take this to the boss, but they don’t care about this, but somehow an android does? 

Natalia made her decision, she gathered up all the data in a briefcase and ran out through the cramped corridors of the energy plant and up to the living levels of the colony. Every person she passed was in their pods as they always were, watching some entertainment show or doing something else on their holo pods, no one noticed, or cared about the planet dying around them, they had bots to do the dirty work where they actually see what is happening. She crossed through the living levels and over to level F - 7 where she found a door with the word, MECHANICS stamped on it, she paused then knocked twice on the metal door. There was a light comotion on the other side then OZ opened the door, they had removed their mechanic’s jacket and Natalia could see that under their thin shirt, the left side of their body was completely robotic, while the right appeared to be organic. 

“Yes?” they asked expectantly,  
Natalia shifted uneasily then held up the data, “I read over your research, let’s talk.”  
They stepped aside and let her in. Inside the small apartment were several androids milling around, reading data pads and such. Several stood up when she entered, looking to OZ expectantly. They waved them down, then led her to the table. She sat down and took out the data, and slid it across to OZ, “What’s your plan?”  
They smiled, “The generators, if the station can’t take off the people will have to notice what is going on around them.”  
Natalia pondered what OZ had said, then nodded, “OK. I can get us into the generator room. I’ll do it.”

OZ stood up and held out their mechanical hand, Natalia shook it. Another android stuck her head in the room, 

“She said yes?” OZ nodded. There was a cheer from the other androids in the room.

Natalia paused then turned to OZ, “if you don’t mind me asking, what made you all come together about this? Like the planet I mean. Aren’t androids supposed to just … ”

“Do as we’re told? Complete our tasks without question?” interjected one of the androids, crossing his arms.

Natalia looked down sheepishly. OZ crossed their arms, “We’re just as smart as you organics, we feel just as strongly, but everyone just expects us to complete the tasks they give us without question.”  
Natalia noticed that as they said that they rubbed their fingers against the metal of their arm. An accident in the generators probably. 

OZ, no Oz, looked her dead in the eyes, challenging her to argue. 

Before she could respond there was a deep rumbling from the depth of the station, We’re lifting off, early? 

Oz jumped to their feet, “They’re taking off! We have to do something! Now!” Then ran to the door, “Are you coming?” Natalia nodded and followed them as they sprinted through the twisting corridors, past all the people who had not even realized that there was anything different. 

She made it to the generator room only to be stopped around the corner by Oz’ arm, who held a finger to their lips then pointed at the two sentry bots standing guard outside.

“What now?” hissed Natalia. Oz just held up their hand then dashed out from the hiding place, slamming their metal across the face plate of the first one, then spun around the second guard and flipped an almost invisible switch on its backplate and the guard dropped to the floor. 

Natalia came out from the corner, then stopped as the alarm started blaring.

“Hurry!” Oz snapped, Natalia fumbled for her key card then swiped open the door and followed Oz into the generator room.

Pistons were pumping fuel through pipes and the three enormous machines hummed with energy.  
“We have to work quickly, or they’ll stop us. Spin down those generators.” 

As Natalia was working on the generators a voice boomed from across the room, 

“Stop!” she whirled around to see Dr. Bryce on one of the upper levels, flanked by four guards, “What do you think you are doing!” He demanded. 

“Dr. Bryce,” She gasped, “You don’t understand! We have to … ”  
“I don’t understand?” He snarled, “You are trying to destroy everything that this colony needs. Guards! Subdue them!” The four bots fanned out then charged at Natalia and Oz. 

Oz jumped in front of Natalia, grabbing a large wrench off the floor and standing guard between her and the bots, “Quick, shut down those generators, I’ll hold them off!”

Natalia didn’t look to see what happened next as she sprinted off to the next panel doing her best to ignore the loud clanking sounds behind her. Only to stop when Oz cried out. 

She turned around to see the wrecked remains of two of the bots, but the other two were grappling Oz, one reached in and grabbed their metal arm, ripping it out of their body with little effort. The other pulled them up into a headlock. 

“Stop this at once!” shouted Dr. Bryce, as he advanced on Natalia, taking a stunner out from his jacket, “Why are you doing this, Travers?”  
“Why are you?” She shot back, stepping away from her boss.  
“Why shouldn’t I?” He snarled,  
“We can. We have the ability to, so we should!” he crossed over to where Oz was struggling against the guards, “We have literally created life to do our work for us, we have all these planets to provide comfort and nutrients to our colony for centuries, Why should anything stop us?” 

“Because we are not gods! We hide all day so we don’t have to see the pain we cause to the world around us!” shouted Oz.

He whirled towards them then snarled at the bots, “Shut down this defective droid.” They glared at him, then slammed their head back, freeing themselves from the two guards and for several minutes, Bryce and Oz struggled against each other. 

Natalia took the opportunity to throw down the final switch and listened to the gears spin down, then turned to see Bryce throw a strike at Oz only for them to dodge and kick him in the stomach, sending the Doctors wheeling backward falling towards the churning gears.

Oz caught him by the front of his shirt, only barely stopping him from falling in, “Hang on!”

He grabbed at their arm, trying to pulling himself up. There was a ripping sound and the fabric of his shirt pulled away and he tumbled into the whirling machinery.

Oz and Natalia shared one last look as the generators erupted. Organic brown eyes meeting synthetic yellow. 

Over the planet of Kassik there was a great comet that pelted down towards surface and then lit the skies red as it collided with the surface.

Many small creatures picked through the wreckage of the great domed craft. There appeared to be nothing left of the beings on the craft. Except for the faint movements of several beings, crawling out from under a door labeled MECHANICS, the small group stumbled out, several of them showing metal through their skin as they carried the rest out and into the sun, to start new lives.

In a different part of the crash station, a figure picked through the remains of three destroyed generators as well as they could with only one arm. In the gashes in their skin metal wires were exposed. With one final push they uncovered a body from under a crumpled fuel cell. There were several beats of silence before the figure reached down and closed the eyes of human technician lying before them. Looking out on the greenery of Kassik, the figure spoke to their fallen comrade.

“You did it. You saved this place. I wish you could see these trees.”


End file.
